91) Waking Up At The Start Of The End Of The World

Mal wouldn't ever have credited Jayne for having a good idea that wasn't tied into money somehow, but the man had managed it. Jack had gone right up to Inara their second day on Aesir and asked if she could get some advice. He guessed Inara had been a little surprised, but she'd also been pleased to be asked, to be trusted enough that Jack would ask.

She'd commended Jayne for making the suggestion too. Mal had been a little busy what with him, Zoë and Carolyn trying to secure cargo and arranging for it to be loaded up. River had a project that she was working on, and she'd roped Rick into it (of course). Whatever it was she'd run it past Zoë first, so Mal wasn't going to argue about it. Anything that made Zoë look even halfway pleased Mal would get on board with.

Jack had ended up staying with Inara for the better part of the day, talking with her, talking with the trainees and the other Matron/Teaching Companion at the House. She'd seemed a lot more relaxed by the evening. She'd even donned the fancy duds they'd found shopping with every evidence of enjoyment. But then, River hadn't even tried to put Jack into a dress. Instead, Jack wore a very feminine version of a fancy suit. The jacket was a lot longer than one of Mal's, almost like a little skirt that fit tightly to her hips and waist and flared out slightly, cut so the waistcoat showed beneath it with a soft white shirt under that. Some fitted pants and Jack's better boots shined up and she looked very nice.

Kaylee had almost pouted because in her opinion dressed up meant dresses for a girl, but River had pointed out that Kaylee and Jack were very different and the soft grey and green of the coat and vest were quite feminine. But to placate Kaylee, River had worn a Chinese style dress and carried a fan that Mal was pretty sure had a blade in it somewhere. Or the edge was sharp enough to cut a man's throat. He wasn't feeling brave enough to ask.

It had been a good day. Kaylee and Simon had gotten married. Kaylee had gotten to have Inara as her witness and Zoë had stood as Simon's since Mal was the one performing the service. And they'd had a little celebration with the trainees in the House gardens. Before the evening lights went up they'd all given Inara a little bit of a shock since everyone's shine jobs had started to reflect silver in the dimming gardens. She'd understood after River had smiled and explained that they would take any edge they could get.

That had been seven months ago, and Mal was really hoping that 'honeymoon' stage of the marriage was due to end soon. He was getting gorram tired of stumbling over the two of them half (or completely) naked and making the beast with two backs all over his ship. He'd warned everyone at the dinner table last night that if he caught one more person without their private parts covered, they'd be scrubbing the water filters with their toothbrush.

Kaylee had pouted and Simon had turned a bit red, but Rick had just chuckled while River looked plain old mischievous. Jayne, Carolyn, Jack and Zoë just looked relieved, and Mal guessed he hadn't been the only one walking in on the newlyweds.

Carolyn stirred beside him, and Mal looked down at his sleeping sweetheart. She was the best thing to happen to him since he'd found his ship. And normally just waking up beside her was enough to soothe him. But they had a job today that was slightly out of the norm for them, and he was getting that itchy feeling on the back of his neck.

"What's wrong," Carolyn murmured.

"What makes you ask," He had his doubts the Socratic method would work for long, but you never knew.

"When you wake up, you generally either get out of bed and start to get dressed because it's your shift on the bridge, or you start to kiss me awake and we both have fun before we start work," Carolyn told him dryly. "When you just lie there and think, it usually means there's something wrong."

"Huh," He hadn't realized he was so predictable.

When he voiced that she chuckled, a low erotic sound that never failed to stir his blood, "Never said it was a bad thing Mal." She tugged him down for a kiss that he couldn't help but return with enthusiasm.

Once Carolyn had ridden him until his eyes nearly crossed and they were both sated and relaxed, she poked him in the ribs, "You didn't answer the question."

"There is no diverting you is there," He inquired facetiously. "I'm not gonna get away with anything."

"Nope, now stop trying to distract me," Carolyn shook her head. "What's wrong."

He sighed. He hated it when he didn't have answers for her, "I just got… got that itchy feelin' on the back of my neck. Like somethin's gonna go wrong. Don't know what."

"With the job you think?" She frowned thoughtfully and Mal shook his head.

"Between River, Zoë, you, Rick and Simon this whole thing is plotted and planned out so a blind idiot could do it in his sleep," He thought about it. "So, I don't know that it's the job. But…well maybe it's that we haven't had anything go really badly wrong in a while. Feels like we're due."

"Well that I can't argue," Carolyn agreed. "Last big problem we had was the riot on Hera. And even that wasn't really our problem so much as we were caught up in it."

"River ain't said anything about it either," Mal frowned. "And if there's something comin' our way she usually knows."

"So, what are our options?"

Mal looked around the table. Everyone, as was their custom before a job of the less than legal type, had gathered in the galley to discuss any last-minute issues or changes. Asking for options had led to a thoughtful silence.

"What's the worst-case scenario," Simon put the question out there and that got everyone thinking.

"Mercs," Jack's voice was soft, worried. She'd learned to modulate her tones, so her voice didn't echo, which was a lot easier on everyone's ears, including her own.

"But coming for who," Jayne looked around the table. "River got Mal and Zoë's records cleared but that don't mean there ain't someone out there lookin' for a payday anyhow."

"Cannot outrun the past," River murmured softly with a tilt of her head and that just made the ants crawling up Mal's spine itch that much worse.

"Likely me," Rick shook his head. "I've always got mercs on my neck."

"So how do we prepare for that," Zoë tapped the table thoughtfully.

"Communication on the job will give us away," River said thoughtfully. "But once the job is done, we could reestablish connections."

"Carry earwigs and turn 'em on once we're done with the job and out of the danger zone," Jayne tried to clarify, and River nodded.

"Assumin' we don't run into mercs while we're doing the job," Rick nodded.

"Don't think that's likely," Zoë shook her head. "The jobs we do…" She shrugged.

River agreed with the First Mate's unspoken conclusion, "Unpredictable. More likely that the ship is being tracked than we are as individuals."

"So, if we've got trouble that's looking for us specifically it'll come to the boat," Mal wasn't sure he liked that any better but at least they could prepare Serenity to an extent. "Well… we've got half a day before we gotta go do the job."

"We've been makin' sure everything's in workin' order day to day," Jack looked at Kaylee. That was a good point. Between Kaylee figuring work arounds and adjustments to Serenity's engines for greater efficiency and Jack scrounging with Jayne and River for parts on every gorram planet they landed on, the ship was in better shape than she'd been in a long time. Of course, with River having her brain on straight and Simon not spending every waking minute trying to fix what was wrong with her the two of them were able to help plan jobs. And that really increased their odds of making money.

Having a gunhand with a brain exceeding Jayne's on jobs was also a big help, as was having a pilot on the ship at all times. All in all, it had been a good day for Serenity when Rick, Jack and Carolyn had taken passage and then employment on the boat. Despite the fact that Rick was a wanted killer and had mercs after him. And River was working on that as well.

Mal looked at his Little Albatross thoughtfully, "How's that project of yours comin' along 'Tross? The cortex one, not the sewing thing." Though River was turning into a pretty good seamstress. She said it was as good as dance or drawing for relaxing her brain.

"Nicely," River nodded. "Comm buoy encryption codes are easy to bypass. Viruses planted."

The Captain nodded thoughtfully. River had come up with a way to scrub the cortex of information on Richard B Riddick. It was slow going but as she'd explained it, a benign virus whose only design was to find and replace data specific to Riddick's records was virtually undetectable. And every time she uploaded the virus to a comm buoy the thing spread. She'd started it in Red Sun and had Serenity set to alert and upload the virus every time they passed a buoy. Since all ships registered on a comm buoy's sensors even if only minimally, every ship that passed thereafter had a sixty percent chance of acquiring the virus and spreading it, depending on whether or not they downloaded information from that buoy.

"How's that gonna work if mercs catch up to us and see with their own eyes Rick's alive," He wondered.

"Won't be alive for long," River's smile was chilly and more than a little bloodthirsty. Mal was not ashamed to admit to himself that River was just as scary as her nán péngyǒu at that moment.

"So we bring earwigs along on the job, once it's done, we turn 'em on, get in touch with Serenity and figure out what to do from there," Rick summarized their planning. Put that way it sounded like they'd have to do a lot of improvising.

"Smellin' a lotta 'if' comin' off this plan," Jayne commented and the worst of it was, he wasn't wrong.

"Secret weapon," River tapped her temple and Jayne chuckled a bit more grimly than usual.

"Yeah, ain't no way they'd see you comin'," He agreed. "How could they?"

"Well let's commence to gettin' set up for the job, get Serenity secured, and one of these 'slip the landlock' programs set to go just in case," Mal ordered.

"Leastways we won't have a lot we gotta carry back," Jayne commented. "We can move fast if we need to."

That was a bright spot. A job involving the theft of credits and information didn't require the mule to leave Serenity. River's portable cortex, a dedicated sourcebox she'd upgraded and shielded so well it didn't even register as a blip on sensors, was the only thing they'd have to carry besides guns.

Paper thin gloves, masks that (when they weren't pulled over their faces) looked like knit caps that wouldn't be out of place on fisherman from New Melbourne, and black clothing. (Jack said they looked like they looked like ninjas. And Mal and Jayne like clumsy ninjas.) And that wasn't exactly inconspicuous.

Rick had rolled his eyes and River had sighed but conceded Jack's point. As a result, the long-sleeved jackets they wore had two layers and were reversible. Plain tan or khaki fabric (in River's case bright red) on one side and black on the other. Another thing that River's sewing skills had been handy for. They'd wear the colors out of the ship and the black during the job and on their way back. River had also used Velcro to attach patches to their pants and wore a brightly colored scarf around her waist. All things that could be tucked into their pockets once they were out of the public eye.

Part of the reason they'd decided to take the job had been their regularly scheduled runs to New Melbourne to pick up fishy stuff for compost. Blue Sun had a lot of ties to the canneries and other fish related businesses and their competitors (of which there weren't many and were of the decidedly underdog variety) would be able to use the stolen information to try and push back against the gigantic corporation. That had been the other reason they'd taken the job. Anything that could hurt or loosen the stranglehold the corporation had on the economy and government was a positive.

Mal took a deep breath and did one last check, "All set to receive the cargo while we're gone?"

Zoë nodded, "Jack and Simon got the cloth we picked up on Aesir ready for the buyers. Fish guts and such'll be comin' in after. Should be finished loadin' up before the sun goes down. Carolyn is on the bridge; she'll keep her ears open for you."

"Then we're off," Mal gave Jayne a look. "Jayne, you an' me, we're gonna look for the safe, strongbox, whatever, anything small, cash that we can take, make this look like the run of the mill burglary. If it can't fit in our pockets or the satchels we don't take it. An' nothing that could have a tracker."

"I got it Mal," Jayne sighed a bit irritably and the Captain knew it was due to this being the fourth repetition of the plan. They were all on edge thanks to his bad feeling and River's confirmation (such as it was) that something had caught up to them (or would very soon).

"Rick, you're with River, guardin' her back while she works her magic, keep an eye out for the same sorta thing," Mal looked at the huge gunhand/pilot and got a nod in return. "Got your goggles?"

"Pocket," Rick nodded. He made a point of carrying them with him. If they ran into mercs the goggles gave the impression that bright light was a weakness. It was paranoid thinking, but paranoia had served them all well in the past.

"All right let's go put a stick in the spokes of Blue Sun's wheel," Mal took a deep breath and reminded himself that they had to deal with what was in front of them. 'The job. We finish the job.' Those words floated out of his memories. This was the same as that.

Author's Note: So we're starting with Mal's perspective regarding the wedding and then a bit of a time jump, but I didn't want to write out seven months of them doing routine (somewhat boring to write) stuff. But things have been going slowly (almosts smoothly) for a while…what do we think is going to happen? Are their mercs or is something else going to go wrong?

Chinese Translations:

nán péngyǒu (boyfriend)